NEW YORK — Years ago, when her roommate came home one day sobbing, Laura Benanti comforted her the only way she knew how — with a song.

Benanti, who would go on to win a Tony Award, still recalls the night when her friend Darcy returned from a terrible waitress shift at an Italian restaurant. A drunken woman kept calling her a derogatory name and a man tried to pay for his meal in pennies.